ALS Research Benefit Raises $5,038

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a debilitating nerve and muscle disease, affects approximately one out of every 100,000 people. If this statistic seems insignificant, think of it this way: two of those people are directly related to the Kenyon community - and were honored last week at the Village Inn during a benefit spearheaded by one of Kenyon's own students on Feb. 5.

Nate Gray '10, whose stepmother passed away from ALS his first year of college, had been mulling over the idea of a fundraiser for ALS for a long time, but after returning from Winter Break to his last semester of college he thought it was "finally a good time" to organize a benefit. He originally planned to donate any proceeds from the event to the family of Professor of Drama Thomas Turgeon, who currently suffers from ALS. "I know it's a really expensive disease," Gray said. "Even the computers that you need are sometimes $20,000, and my family was lucky enough to be able to afford that, but I know other people around may not be able to, so I just wanted to donate to him." Gray reconsidered after speaking to Associate Professor of Drama Andrew Reinert, who "said the best thing to do would be a donation in honor of Tom, and so I was cool with that," Gray said. "We sort of made it a joint collaborative thing in honor of Professor Turgeon, too, and in memory of my stepmom."

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the benefit was the speed of the planning. Mark Ellis, the news director for the Office of Public Affairs, was surprised but enthusiastic when Gray "popped in" looking for help. "We just chatted about what was going on, but at the time, the whole [event] was still being formed and it seemed like there wasn't a whole lot of time to get everything together," said Ellis. "But he was so enthusiastic and so committed and it's such a terrific cause that we were more than happy to help." Ellis arranged a press release for the Kenyon Web site, which Gray said he greatly appreciated. "Mark did a College press release for the event and was really enthusiastic," he said. "I think once you mention Professor Turgeon's name to people around here, it really resonates, and everyone has been super supportive. I'm really grateful for their help. I've just done my best to contact people and tell my story."

Ellis expressed his support of and admiration for Gray's work. "It was just a pleasure to help him out because the cause is so terrific. It just came together beautifully in a rather short amount of time so it was impressive. … It really shows terrific student initiative, and you just can't beat the cause."

Gray emphasized that he wanted the benefit to be a truly communal experience. "I wanted everyone in the community to come. I wanted an event where everyone could come together and support a good cause." He planned the event in several parts: "the earlier part [was] … more for community members, professors and administrators, and the later event [was] more targeted towards students with the Motown Band and a DJ," he said. With an extended happy hour from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and an auction at 7:00 p.m. that included jewelry donated by President S. Georgia Nugent, Gray hoped to reach out to the greater community. Gray performed on tenor saxophone at 10:00 p.m. with the Motown Band, a student band. The band donated their fee for the night to the ALS foundation.

Nugent and the Office of the President prepared a statement expressing their support for Gray's cause. Jesse Matz, the special assistant to the president, said: "We were very impressed with Nate. … Everyone at Kenyon is eager to do anything we can because of the way the disease has touched us. The Office of the President is committed to doing everything we can in the fight against this terrible disease."

Before the event, publicity was provided in large part by Laule'a Gorden-Kuehn '10 and the Epsilon Delta Mu sorority, who Gray put in charge of getting the word out. "I've really been happy … with the publicity," he said. "[I'm] really surprised and excited about what a great job the EDM sorority is doing, and Laule'a has done an incredible job; she's headed up the stuff they've done and it's been terrific. The signs on Middle Path, the banners, all the little facts, the candy, the ribbons, they've just done an incredible job." Gray was referring to the blue-and-white-striped ribbons that members of EDM and Delta Kappa Epsilon gave out at Peirce during dinner in the nights leading up to the event in order to raise awareness for ALS and for the benefit. In addition to the ribbons, publicity included all-student e-mails, student-info messages, the Kenyon Web site press release and Village Inn posters and flyers with facts about ALS. Student awareness about the event was high, as was enthusiasm to attend, even with the $3 cover charge. "I wasn't sure how the cover charge thing was going to go," Gorden-Kuehn said. "We've never done a cover charge on campus before in the four years I've been here … but it went so well and everyone really chipped in. I know a lot of people gave more than the $3."

Despite the snow, the Kenyon community turned out in droves to support the fight against ALS. Student attendance at the event was impressive: it was almost impossible to move through the throngs of people dancing to the music of the Motown Band.

The attendance paid off. Gray said the event raised more than $5,000, all of which will be donated to the ALS Association, whose mission is to "lead the fight to cure and treat ALS through global, cutting-edge research." The amount of money raised went far beyond projected or expected totals. "[The estimate] was $1,000 maximum from an event like this, and [Nate] wanted to make more than that, so … he went out and got $100 donations from ten different faculty members and members of the community which he saw as a matching fund to the $1,000 we were going to make at the VI, hopefully," Gorden-Kuehn said. "What ended up happening is we made $5,000. … It was just a really heartwarming experience … and when Nate called me … I was ecstatic because I knew [$5,000] was so far over our original goal."